Sappy 🍓

Qifrey, post silverwood, suddenly reverting back to his pre-everything crush on Olly when he was 13. He’s been able to avoid the rush of nerves and anticipation interacting with Olly for 20 years because he *knew* nothing could really happen because of the tree. Without it, his filters for processing every close moment with Olly have disappeared.

Suddenly, Olly taking his hand to pull him up from the ground in the garden is making him blush. Qifrey is now incredibly aware every time Olly touches his back in the kitchen to let him know he’s there. He stammers when Olly catches him staring and asks if there’s something on his face. He finds himself dodging eye contact throughout the day as if he’s hiding from those deep blue eyes. He feels totally ridiculous for it.

And Olly? He’s noticing and he’s LIVING for it. Suddenly, it’s incredibly apparent that Qifrey finds him attractive. The stuttering and blushing and the way Qifrey turns into a flustered mess are going to his head in the best way. And he also finds all of it incredibly endearing (if maybe a little sad when he realizes why it’s happening now). There’s a certain pride with turning Qifrey, who has put on a charming and suave public persona for years, into a bit of an embarrassed wreck just by being around.

Olly starts flirting with more purpose just to see more of those reactions and they *work* but they also come with an unexpected result. Qifrey, after being forced to keep so many secrets, is way more honest about things than he used to be. Qifrey responds to Olly’s flirting with flustered but sincere comments appreciating Olly’s skills and talents and abilities or by telling Olly how much he means to him. Which makes OLLY the flustered mess.

Been reading some fics and one thing I find interesting is how people interpret Qifrey "post tree" state.

I prefer when he's blind after removing the Silverwood seed, but it's also interesting when he can still see but has debilitating PTSD about it and needs a lot of time to open up again

But about his blindness, I think it's a little silly when people write him having a hard time drawing seals when it's well established that witches need to know how to draw without looking to pass the SECOND test. He's used to the muscle memory of drawing without seeing what he's doing, that's not where the issue would lie.

The biggest issue would be knowing WHAT needs to be drawn, how big and far away is the target (not for violence, just like for example a mountain apple he wants to catch) of the magic? How big should the pyreball be? Is there something in the vicinity that could be affected accidentally by his magic? These kind of issues. Not "omg, idk where my lines are!".

Of course it's not a big deal but it's a little detail I've noticed.

More behind the cut.